Gluten: The Binder

Gluten is a naturally occurring plant-based protein in wheat, barley, and rye products. Since Wheat is a prominent staple diet of a Major chunk of the Human Population, gluten become very important in food, and the industry is built around wheat . In bread making, it’s exceedingly important. We can think of gluten as the miraculous net that holds bread together; it helps dough rise by trapping gas bubbles during fermentation and gives bread its unique texture. Although bread begins with many of the same ingredients as cookies, pastries, cakes, and even shortbreads, it has a completely different consistency. Gluten makes bread airy and satisfyingly chewy. It’s hard to imagine enjoying a chewy cake or a bread that crumbles like a cookie.

Gluten is formed when two of wheat’s native proteins, glutenin and gliadin, come into contact with water. That’s why it’s more accurate to talk about a flour’s gluten potential rather than its gluten content. Either way, the more gluten a flour can produce, the more able the dough is to hold gas bubbles, which gives the bread an open crumb.

From a baker’s perspective, gluten development begins during mixing. The basic point of mixing is to hydrate flour. Mixing matters not because it is necessary to develop gluten; you can develop gluten with minimal mixing. Mixing is essential because it speeds up hydration and ensures that water is evenly dispersed throughout the flour.

When the glutenin and gliadin proteins come in contact with water, they almost immediately bind and form gluten. The longer glutenin pieces link up with each other via disulfide bonds to form strong, stretchy units of molecules. Somehow, these interlinked strands are among the largest protein molecules yet found. Both gliadin and glutenins have different say in gluten formation. Whereas compact gliadin proteins allow the dough to become more flowy, glutenins contribute to the inherent strength of the dough.